Magical Girl Roommates
by BunnyHeartMedicine
Summary: After the events of Rebellion every single magical girl is rooming with other magical girls. Multiple crossovers such as Sailor Moon, Madoka Magica, Utena, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kill la Kill etc.
1. Chapter 1

Rei was impatienly tapping her foot, starting to get irritated. "Luna you said that they would be here around now, what the hell is taking them so long?" She snapped to the cat. "Don't worry Rei-chan, they should come around any minute now." Assured Luna. "Well they better get here soon because I refuse to wait around here any moment longer." Huffed Rei. Luna only sighed.

"Excuse me?" That seemed to them shake them out of it. They turned away from each other to come face to face with a girl with blonde wavy shoulder blade length hair and amethyst eyes with a demure look on her face holding a suitcase. "Is this the Hikawa Shrine?"

Both Rei and Luna blinked in confusion and quickly turned to picture Rei had in her pocket that was mostly likely of the girl with the only differences being her lacking the braid holding her hair back and the air of haughtiness around her. They looked back and forth between both the picture and the girl until they were satisfied with what they saw. "Oh you must be Nanami Kiryuu-san, right?"

The girl smiled and nodded, sticking her hand out. "Yes and you must be Hino-san." Rei smiled and nodded back, shaking her hand. "Please just call me Rei." Nanami smiled but then darted her head around the area before leaning in closely to Rei. "… And Sailor Saturn, right?" She whispered only to make Rei sigh in exasperation. "Mars actually." That had made Nanami step back and do double take only to face palm herself. "Damn it so close!"

Rei and Luna only laughed. "It's alright Kiryuu-san," assured Luna, "after all taking into consideration of disguise magic it's perfectly fine for you to make any mistakes on a fellow magical girl's identity." Nanami sighed. "Well if you say so. Anyway shouldn't we go inside now?"

"Well you might need to wait a little bit; you see another magical girl also answered Rei-chan's roommate ad." "Really who?" "A girl by the name of Kyoko Sakura." "Oh a Kyo- WHAT!?" Nanami immediately took a few steps back while also dropping her suitcase. "K-K-Kyoko Sakura? Y-y-you mean one of those P-P-Puella Magi involved with the i-i-incident?"

The incident in question that Nanami was talking about was when the Incubators, contractors of the Puella Magi, had decided to perform an experiment using a Puella Magi named Homura Akemi to see what happens when a Soul Gem is cut off from the Law of Cycles and as bait to trap the goddess of the Puella Magi, Madokami. However that had backfired on them when Homura had usurped Madokami's position and recreated the universe as the Devil and unfortunately for her this disturbance was felt by a couple of magical girls leading to investigation of the incident to her eventually being put under house arrest by the Outer senshi. Due to this event all magical girls and familiars (minus the Incubators of course) had decided to create a sort of housing program of magical girls rooming with other magical girls in order to prevent another grand scale incident such as this from ever happening again. As for Kyoko Sakura, she was one of the individuals involved in the matter along with a fellow Puella Magi named Mami Tomoe and former Puella Magi and angels of Madokami, Sayaka Miki and Nagisa Momoe.

"Y-y-you can't trust her! A-a-after all she was a part o-o-of those I-I-Incubators' scheme!" Protested Nanami. "Now now Kiryuu-san, that wasn't what had happened," explained Luna,"Sakura-san was just involved in the incident, she didn't do anything to cause it as well as the others involved." "Th-th-that may be true but remember she's a Puella Magi which means she made a wish to become one. Who knows what sort of horrible thing she wished for?" "Horrible huh? Now I wouldn't call my wish that."

Surprised to hear a new voice, all three of them turned to the direction where it came from only to see a girl with long red hair done up in a ponytail with matching eyes carrying a backpack slung over her shoulder eating a single stick of pocky. "Oh Kyoko you're here, took you long enough." said Rei causing Nanami to screech in terror and scramble to hide behind her peaking over her shoulder. "I-I-It's her!"

"Oh who's this, another magical girl that answered your add?" Asked Kyoko. "What are you a Precure? A Mew? A Sailor Senshi, cause if you are what's your name Sailor Screams-and-acts-like-a-bitch?" That had just angered Nanami. "Hey you listen here you-you-you juvenile delinquent! I am Nanami Kiryuu and you should very damn well know how to talk to a pure magical girl such as myself?"

"Pure, eh? And what just so happens to make you a "pure" magical girl?" "Well for starters I'm not stupid enough to make some deal with some overgrown rat in exchange for some silly miracles!" "Oh really? Well then maybe with such "purity" as yours maybe you are a Precure. What do they call you, Cure Cu-" "ENOUGH!" Rei yelled, startling both girls and Luna enough for her to hop off her shoulder. "If you two are done bickering, I'd like for all of us to head inside the shrine now so shall we?"

Nanami and Kyoko glared at each other and defiantly turned their heads away from the other and followed behind Rei as they climbed up the stairs. Once they made it to the top, they were met with a short old man in Shinto Priest robes sweeping. "Ah Rei-chan I see those lovely girls that answered our ad for shrine maidens have arrived. Nice to meet you two, I'm Rei's grandfather." Said Grandpa Hino, reaching out to shake hands with both of them. "Nice to meet you too." Agreed Nanami, shaking his hand while also being confused about the shrine maiden part. "Yeah, nice to meet you." Said Kyoko, shaking his hand after Nanami had done so. "I gotta say you ladies look just as lovely as your pictures. Rei be a dear and show our new employees to their quarters." "Yes grandpa." With that Rei led both the girls into the shrine.

"Uh Hino- I mean Rei-san, why did your grandfather think we came here to be shrine maidens?" Asked Nanami once she was sure that they were out of Grandpa Hino's hearing range."Isn't it obvious?" Kyouko butted in,"it's because he has no idea that Rei's a magical girl and so she needed a cover up for why we're staying here you idiot." Nanami pouted at her for that."That and you guys are going to be shrine maidens." Said Rei surprising both of them. "W-what do you mean we're gonna be shrine maidens!" "I only signed up for this for food, no one sad anything about work!"

"What did you two think you were just going to live here and goof off? Hell no, if you're going to live with me you sure as hell are going to carry your weight, therefore you two are going to be shrine maidens and help around here." Both Nanami and Kyoko sighed in disappointment. "Anyway here's your room." Rei said, sliding the door open to reveal a traditional shinto bedroom.

"Oh it looks lovely, where's the bed?" Asked Nanami while also searching insidefor it. Her question was answered by Rei promptly pointing at two mats on the floor in the middle of the entire room."WHAAAT!? What the hell is this!? This better be some kind of joke and also why are there two mats in here!?" Nanami demanded endlessly. "Because both of you are rooming together." Casually explained Rei making Kyoko and Nanami's jaws drop."WHAT! With her!?" They said in unison."Well this is as much space we have at the shrine for people to sleep in. You should consider yourselves lucky." "LUCKY!?" "Hey if there's only enough space for two of us to sleep in, then how come one of us doesn't share a room with you?" "Are you kidding me? If I room together with either of you I'll never sleep again. By the way you can feel free to unpack now."

With that, Rei left both the girls alone together in the room. They glared at each other and turned away again and headed to their own drawers in the room to unload to their luggage. "Don't even think about stealing any of my things." "Oh like you have anything worth pawning off." "Why you -"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in another part of Juuban, Mako had just taken a cake out of the oven, baked in honor of her future roommates. She'd gotten two of the people involved with the incident, Mami Tomoe and Nagisa Momoe, to come live with her thanks to Artemis, who interestingly enough knew the former from Minako's Sailor V days, and as soon as she heard what a great cook Mami was and how big an appetite Nagisa had she had immediately started planning and preparing a feast for the dinner they would have as roommates. Mako was just so excited about having people to live with, come home to, and cook for.<p>

As soon as she was about to frost the cake, she heard the door bell ring. She gasped in excitement, believing it to be who she thought it would be. Mako rushed out of the kitchen and over to the door and before she could answer it wiped off some cake batter she saw she had gotten on her cheek when she went past a mirror. Finally she answered the door and was absolutely delighted to see she was right. "Hey, come in, come in." Mako greeted while also ushering them in.

Mami smiled. Mako was still as kind and sweet as the first time they had met. "Nice to see you too, Kino-san." "Now, now don't be so formal, I told you you could just call me Mako." "Hi Mako!" Said Nagisa, clutching tightly to the straps of her back pack. "And hi to you too Nagisa. You know right now I've just finished baking a cake, wanna help me frost it?" Asked Mako making the little girl's eyes light up. Nagisa replied with an eager yes while also even more eagerly nodding her head and ran inside the apartment, dropping her back pack on the floor.

Both older girls giggled at the sight. "She's still energetic as usual, huh?" Commented Mako. "Indeed, mind if I help out with the cake?" "Not at all." Mami came inside and picked up Nagisa's back pack, setting both that and her suitcase on one of the couches and went into the kitchen with Mako just in time to see Nagisa oohing and awing at all the food she had cooked. "Wow." She was practically drooling at everything on the counter such as the meatloaf, the chicken, the shrimp, the salad, the pasta, the calzones, the lasagna, the ravioli, the steak, and the mashed potatoes and practically dropped her jaw when she saw the unfrosted cake.

"Glad to see you like it." Quipped Mako, gathering aprons from a hook in the kitchen. After handing them to Mami and Nagisa she gotten out three cans of frosting. "So Nagisa which flavor should we use?" Nagisa was salivating while also contemplating which frosting would complement the cake's flavor. Chocolate frosting would be great with chocolate cake but so would vanilla and strawberry as well. "Uh this one. No this one! No wait this one!" She kept randomly pointing at the cans while the two older girls laughed. She soon ended up doing eeny meeny miny moe to select one and ended up choosing vanilla. "Great choice." complimented Mako, getting three frosting knives for each of them. "Ok Mami and I will do the sides and you can do the top. You like that?" Nagisa nodded happily. Nagisa ended up making a complete mess of the frosting, getting more of it on the counter and on herself instead of the cake. Both Mami and Mako giggled at the sight and offered to help the little girl a few times only to have their offers turned down when Nagisa insisted she could do it on her own. Soon enough Nagisa managed to get a decent amount on her part of the cake and was applauded by Mami and Mako for her job well done.

"Great job Nagisa," said Mako, "by the way you also got some frosting here." She grabbed a wash cloth and wiped vanilla frosting off of Nagisa's left cheek. Mami giggled. "You also got some here." She did the same as Mako and wiped off frosting from her other cheek and forehead. They then ended up making Nagisa take a bath to be able to clean out the frosting that had gotten in her hair with Mako insisting on taking care of washing her clothes that had also gotten frosting on them. With Mako pointing to the direction of the bathroom, Nagisa skittered off to there while Mami grabbed a fresh pair of clothes from her backpack. "I hope you don't mind the mess." Said Mami, gesturing towards the frosting fiasco left by Nagisa. "Oh it's no problem, besides the kitchen is usually the messiest part of the house." Mako then got out her cleaning supplies while Mami went to help Nagisa with cleaning herself.

Once they were done they returned to to the kitchen part dining room to find it already set for dinner with Mako holding a chair out. "Feel free to dig in." Nagisa had happily climbed into the chair and gathered just about every food item there was onto her plate and immediately started gobbling it all down. Mako and Mami laughed at the sight. "Am I really that good or is this just a normal reaction to any kind of cooking?" Jokingly asked Mako. Mami giggled in returned. "Well the only time I've seen her like this is when she's eating my cooking, so I suppose you're that good." With that Mami took a bite of the meatloaf and was delighted with the flavor. "Why Kino-san this is delicious, tell me what's your secret?" Mako smiled, letting the Kino-san slide. "Oh it's just regular meatloaf I made following the recipe exactly. But I'm pretty sure it's nothing compared to your cooking." "Nonsense. I'm pretty sure your culinary skills are superior to mine." "Oh yeah, care to prove it by helping me make tomorrow's dinner?" Mami giggled. "Of course."

Soon they all finished dinner and were about to move onto dessert when Mako brought in the cake they all frosted together. Nagisa was enamored by the sight, and was about to take a piece of the cake only to have her small hand lightly slapped away by Mami who also gave her a little reminder about manners. "Now before we eat this, there's something I want to do first." Mako announced. From behind her she took out an icing bag of chocolate icing causing Nagisa to drool more than before. "Care to take the honors Mami-san?" Asked Mako, holding the bag towards Mami. "Indeed." With that Mami took the bag and went around the table to ice something on the cake that made Nagisa stand on her tip toes to see. "Wow that looks really good." Mako commented on the vine like borders with flowers Mami had made on the cake. "Oh I'm sure it's nothing compared to what you can do." "Wanna bet." Mako took back the icing and made frill like borders around Mami's vines. "Hm, that looks really good."

"I wanna see! I wanna see! Let Nagisa see!" Demanded Nagisa, jumping and squeezing in between the two older girls making them giggle once more. "Here go ahead." Said Mako, putting the bag down, lifting Nagisa up into the chair there and then dropping her on her knees to see the cake. "Wow," she awed, "can Nagisa do it too?" Mako smiled. "Of course," and handed the bag to the small child. Nagisa held the bag's tip in both hands, balancing the rest on her arm, and stared making her creation. When she was done she happily showed it to Mako and Mami. "Wow it looks great," said Mako, who then leaned in to Mami to whisper "what is it?" Nagisa had heard that and happily answered. "It's Nagisa as Bebe!" Both the older girls leaned to see the image more clearly, which to Mami looked exactly like Nagisa's form in Homulily's barrier adorably drawn while to Mako looked like a childish doodle of a clown with pointy teeth. "Oh I see it!" Said Mako, clapping her hands together. "Who's Bebe exactly?" She whispered to Mami, while leaning away from Nagisa so she wouldn't hear her again. "I'll explain later." With that Mako cut out a slice of cake for each of them.

Later Mako led each of the girls to their bedrooms. "Nagisa, this right here is your bedroom." With that Mako opened the door to what was formerly a plain guest room and led both girls inside. Once inside they were met with a room that was perfect for the little girl it was intended for. It had honey orange walls with dots painted white, red, and blue in varying sizes, the floor had brown carpeting, the drawers and vanity were painted white, the closet had sliding mirror doors, there's was a small caramel colored table in the center of the room with four pastel colored stools, and a bed that was white with a wooden head board that had orange pillows with yellow and white dots with a matching comforter on it. "I decorated it myself," said Mako while Nagisa wowed at every last detail of the room. "If you don't like it we could change it -" "No it's perfect! Nagisa loves it!" Nagisa claimed. With that she plopped down onto the bed and spread her arms and legs out laughing. Both Mako and Mami smiled. "Remember I'm right next door." reminded Mako closing the door, leaving Nagisa to her own doings.

"Her room really does look lovely," commented Mami, making Mako blush and sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "Oh it's nothing really besides the other Inners helped me with the more manual stuff." Said Mako, happy to know that Minako and Usagi accidentally spilling paint, them arguing with Rei, her and Ami sighing while setting the floor, and Mamoru messily building the furniture until needing her help had all been worth it. "Oh, and there's something you should know." "Oh, really?" Asked Mami, tilting her head. "Yeah, you see my apartment only has two rooms, so you and I pretty much have to bunk together." Explained Mako. "If you have a problem with it, I could sleep on the couch -" "Oh no Kino-san that won't be necessary." Assured Mami. "Oh that great to know since I already got an extra bed." With that both went down the small hall to what was formerly just Mako's room.

She opened the door and Mami was astonished as the sight of the room. The walls were painted a mint green color, the floor was pale grey carpeting, there was a twin bed most likely for her with yellow pillows and blankets that had brown swirly designs on them between two wooden shelf drawers, on the opposite side a bed twice the size of the other one with white and green pillows and a rose patterned comforter in between two nightstands that had a pink lamp on each of them, to the side of that a closet with wooden doors, and in the middle wall there were clear doors in between two wooden regular drawers with the right one having an array of stuff animals on it that led to a balcony. "Why Kino-san it's absolutely lovely." "Thanks, if you want you can take the bigger bed." "Thank you Kino-san, but that won't be necessary."

Mako then pointed out that the drawer and one of the shelf drawers that were on the same side as Mami's bed were empty and that she'd cleared out half her closet for her to put her clothes in as well. She also offered to help Mami unpack her things but was turned down but insisted she do at least one thing to help her on her first day as a roommate making Mami relent and allow her to help. After that they went to help Nagisa unpack her things only to find the girl already asleep and the most unpacking she had done was putting a single sock in a still open drawer. They giggled and unpacked all her things for her and pout them all away tidily into her drawers and anything else that couldn't fit into the closet. Once that was done, both girls decided it was late and headed to bed. Mami though took a shower and changed into a silk lavender night gown. She returned to her room to find Mako having just removed her hair bobble that kept her ponytail together, allowing her hair to freely flow down in waves. She also noticed that Mako had changed into a pair of cherry red silk pajamas. They both went to their own beds, climbed under the sheets, and Mako turned off both her lamps, allowing the only light to be from the moon outside. "Goodnight Kino-san." "Goodnight Mami-san."

* * *

><p>Ami stared out the taxi window, taking in the sights of Tomaeda. This seemed like a good place for her friend to stay in. Speaking of her friend, Ami turned around only to see the back of her friend's pink head of hair, doing the same thing she was just doing before. "Tenjou-san?" She asked, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. She didn't respond. Ami soon resorted to shaking her shoulder while repeating her name to get her out of it. Soon enough it worked. "Oh, sorry Mizuno-san." She apologized looking at her with wide pale blue eyes that reflected both her sudden surprise and apology while over all being blank.<p>

Ami sighed. About two months ago she was visiting her mother's hospital and one of the nurses asked her to throw away some trash. She obliged and went outside to the dumpster only to find a girl sitting limply next to it like a doll against a wall for support. Ami in shock had dropped the bag and ran over to the girl. She noticed she was covered in cuts and bruises and her clothes were ripped and torn. When she kneeled down and asked the girl if she was alright, her answer was met with the girl almost mechanically moving her hung head towards her and staring at her. The most distinct thing about the memory to her was how blank her eyes were, like a piece a paper no one had written on, a canvas not yet painted, an absolutely blank slate. She got up quickly and told the girl to stay where she was and went back inside to tell the doctors and nurses about an injured girl outside. There was blur of them rushing outside huddling around the girl, helping her stand, and rushing her indoors. Soon the girl was cleaned and bandaged by the nurses and given the hospital's standard night gown to wear. When asked by a doctor what her name was she blankly stared for a few moments before saying in a shaky yet husky voice: "U-Utena Tenjou."

When asked anymore questions such as old she was, where did she came from, when was her birthday, what school she go to, did she have any relatives and so on, she only responded with a tilt of the head and said "I don't know." To Ami she was like a doll, a doll that had been used and thrown about until it became worn out and broken. After that she had gone over to Hikawa Shrine to meet with her friends and tell them about what had just happened but as soon as she sat down she was interrupted by Luna who claimed to have felt the traces of a energy very similar to their's yet different. She ended up scanning the entire room to find where it was coming from only to find it was coming from Ami, shocking the other girls. Ami then explained how she didn't understand how this was possible until asked if she interacted with anyone new. She told them all about how she was at the hospital and the strange girl she had met, catching Luna's attention when she spoke about her. The cat soon deduced that girl was responsible for the energy trace left on Ami and asked her to take her to the hospital tomorrow to meet her which Ami agreed to do.

She had kept Luna hidden in a duffle bag the entire time, waving hello to all the employees there and asked the receptionist where Utena Tenjou was. When answered she went straight to the girls room and properly introduced herself to her, holding out her hand to greet her. When she was met once again with the blank stare coupled with the girl not doing anything at all, she retracted her arm and explained to Utena she had brought someone to meet her. She guessed Utena's interest was piqued from the way she tilted her head towards her. She unzipped her bag and released Luna onto the bed. Luna stared at her, Utena doing the same likewise. Luna soon scanned the girl using a beam from the crescent moon on her forehead, surprisingly not surprising Utena at all. Luna had then come to the conclusion that Utena, like Ami and the sailor senshi, was a magical girl. Ami had agreed that would be enough to explain as to how she was injured like she was. Luna was then about to ask her some questions until told by Ami that Utena was diagnosed with amnesia much to the cat's disappointment.

Luna then realized that due to Utena being a magical girl while also having amnesia, Utena was at a high risk for danger. They had meeting with the other Inners discussing how to protect her and decided that one or two of them would visit Utena each day and stand by her side to protect her from any sort of harm until she was released from the hospital. In the meanwhile Luna was communicating with other magical familiars and magical girls as to who Utena could stay with considering both Rei and Mako were booked for roommates, Ami's, Minako's, and Usagi's families probably wouldn't be too keen on taking a stranger into their homes, and that the Outers already had the Devil to deal with. A ray of hope soon shone when Kero, a familiar of a magical girl named Sakura Kinomoto, had offered to let the girl live with them.

Although it had come to a shock and a bit of a nuisance to Sakura herself that Kero had just volunteered her to take in Utena without asking her first, she nonetheless allowed her to come live with her. She also visited her along with her father and Kero when she was in the hospital. The both of them ended up getting along with each other really well and Sakura was more than happy to have Utena live with her. Now the big day had arrived.

Ami insisted on traveling with Utena to the Kinomotos' residence, having known the girl longest and worrying about her even longer. "We're almost there Tenjou-san." Said Ami, assuring her. Utena nodded. "Thank you." And with that she returned to looking out the window. Utena enjoyed being around Ami, for some reason she felt familiar to her, almost reminding her of someone, she wasn't sure who exactly but she was happy to at least feel like she was remembering something.

"Ah we're here." Announced Ami, pointing out through her window Sakura's home. With that the taxi stopped and both girls got out of the car. Utena went to the trunk to get out her luggage while Ami went to the front to pay the driver and thank him for his job well done. After she'd done so she went to help Utena unload her luggage.

Unbeknownst to both of them they had just captured the attention of a pair of green eyes. "Ami-chan! Utena-chan! Hi!" Greeted Sakura fr her window, waving wildly. This caught both of their attention making Ami wave back happily and Utena wave back blankly. "Oh stay right there, I'm coming out!" Sakura then dashed out of sight from her window making Ami giggle at the scene all while also being reminded of when she first met Usagi. Sakura soon came out of the house along with her father Fujitaka and helped the girls unload the rest of the luggage. Once they done so, Fujitaka told the cab driver he could leave now and did so. He then went to face Utena and Ami. "Hello again girls, care to come in? We're just about to have lunch." Ami nodded and followed Fujitaka and Sakura into their home, Utena trailing lightly behind.

Once they were inside they were promptly sent to the half kitchen and dining room with Sakura and sat down at the table while Fujitaka went and got out the lunch. "I hope you girls enjoy." Fujitaka said, giving each of the girls a plate of spaghetti. "Thank you Professor Kinomoto." Thanked Ami who soon enough took a bite. "Wow it's delicious." She complimented. Utena took a bite as well. "It's good." She said, although in her usual blank voice. Sakura smiled. "Of course it's good, my dad made it. He's really good at cooking."

"Oh my, he might end up giving Mako a run for her cooking." Joked Ami, who soon broke into a fit of giggles that Sakura immediately joined in. Utena simply stared at them. "I'm glad you all enjoy it." Said Fujitaka, washing left over dishes. "Not as much as I am that you're all enjoying it without me though." Surprised at hearing a new voice they all turned towards where it came from only to be faced with Kero hovering in the air, arms crossed and a peeved look on his face. "Ah Kero-chan," started Sakura, surprised at most "I thought you were still sleeping." "Well I was until I was awoken by the delicious smell of spaghetti - That I happen to find all of you eating without me!" "Kero-chan, calm down-" "I will not calm down!" "Kero-chan-" "No I refuse! I can't believe you Sakura-chan, how could you betray me like this?" Kero sobbed into his arm while Ami and Sakura looked on in exasperation and Utena just blankly stared.

"Now, now Kero-chan, there's no need to make a fuss." Chided Fujitaka from the kitchen scooping some spaghetti from the pot and putting it out on a plate. "There's plenty of spaghetti to go around." Fujitaka then put the plate right underneath Kero who immediately stopped crying. "Ah thanks Professor Kinomoto." Kero flew down and grabbed a fork and twisted himself up a big pile of spaghetti and ate it all in one gulp. As he was eating his meal Sakura and Ami were laughing together at the sight. Utena though just stared at Kero eating his weight in spaghetti, once again feeling that remembering feeling she got around Ami only now she was being reminded of someone else.

"So Ami-chan are you going to stay a while longer." Asked Sakura once their meals were finished. "I wish I could but no. I have to be back in Juuban by tomorrow." Explained Ami while helping her pick up the dishes and handing them to Fujitaka. "Aw that's too bad," Kero said leaning against a salt shaker, "Sakura planned on taking Utena around the town and showing her around." Ami smiled. "I'm sure it would've been fun. Excuse me Professor Kinomoto but can I use your phone to call up a cab?" "Not at all." Fujitaka then lead Ami to the lounge while Sakura, Kero, and Utena stayed behind.

"So Utena-chan do you want to go out and see the town?" Asked Sakura. Utena nodded yes. Soon both of girls left the house but not before Kero said goodbye to the two. Sakura had gladly shown Utena around from showing her the way to school and school itself to all of the shops and restaurants around town. The whole time Sakura happily pointed out and explained little things and details about Tomaeda while Utena complacently listened. They soon made their way to King Penguin Park.

"This right here is King Penguin Park." explained Sakura. "The park is known for well the big King Penguin slide of course, but aside from that I had a lot of great times here during my Cardcaptor days." Sakura smiled as she thought fondly of those days from capturing the cards to changing them into her very own Sakura cards. Unfortunately for Sakura however, while she was lost in her memories she ended up bumping into someone and knocking both of them down.

"Ow. Huh? Hoeee!" Sakura immediately got up to help the person she had knocked down get back up. "I-I'm so sorry, so very sorry, p-please forgive me." Begged Sakura once she helped the person up and bowed for forgiveness. Utena just stood there the entire time remaining quiet, keeping most of her focus on Sakura. However though when she turned to face the person Sakura had accidentally knocked down her eyes widened in shock. The person Sakura had knocked into was a woman, a woman with greenish blonde hair tied into a bun with green eyes behind wide round glasses wearing a mint green suit with a white blouse and orange scarf. "Oh no it's perfectly alright," said the woman, wearing a smile which to Utena didn't seem genuine at all, "I myself didn't look where I was going, so in any case I should be the one asking you to forgive me." Utena just stared at the woman, feeling the exact sort of déjà vu she got around Ami and Kero only more intense.

"D-Do I know you?" Asked Utena, still staring wide eyed at the woman. Sakura stared at Utena in confusion while the woman continued to smile that false smile of her's. "Hm? No I don't believe so, in fact I highly doubt if we ever met before." She replied. "Oh but allow me to introduce myself, I am Reiko Hanato and I am pleased to meet you." She greeted both the girls with a bow. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Sakura Kinomoto and this is my friend Utena Tenjou." "Utena Tenjou?" Reiko said and then stared at Utena, making the girl express even more shock. Reiko's smile widened. She then lifted Utena's chin with only her finger tips and tilted her head to face her. "What a lovely name, Utena." She retracted her fingers, still leaving Utena stunned.

"So are you new to Tomaeda?" Asked Sakura, trying to break up the somewhat awkward to her situation that had happened. Reiko nodded. "I am actually. My fiancé and I had recently moved here because I was offered job." "Really?" "Mm hmm. Oh my look at the time, it's getting really late." Reiko said, looking at her pearl wristwatch. "I better be going now, it was nice to meet both of you and I hope we can see each other again." Reiko then walked away, leaving both the girls behind together.

"She is right about it being late. We should probably go home." Utena agreed. She still felt strange about Reiko, and she believed that there was more to her than meets the eye. When they returned home, Fujitaka popped his head out from the kitchen. "Welcome back you two." He greeted. Utena looked around. "Professor Kinomoto, did Mizuno-san leave already?" Utena asked. "Ah yes she did, but before she left she told me to tell you she said goodbye and that she hopes your memories return soon." He then went back into the kitchen only to come back out again. "Oh and Sakura, Toya and Yukito are coming over for dinner." He told her. "Oh ok." "In the meantime while I cook do you think you and Tenjou-san can go upstairs and unpack her things?" Sakura happily nodded. Fujitaka nodded back and finally returned to the kitchen.

Both the girls grabbed Utena's suitcases and headed upstairs. Once up Sakura lead Utena to what used to be Toya's room and started unpacking. "Kinomoto-san-" "Just Sakura will be fine." "Sakura, did you feel anything strange about Hanato-san?" Sakura looked up from the suitcase she was emptying, confusion spread across her features. "Strange? Like what?" She asked, while also taking into consideration how Reiko had casually held Utena's face despite the latter's shock could classify as such. Utena looked away. "Nothing really. I guess it's not that important at all."

Sakura was saddened by that remark, remembering very much the times when either Syaoran or Kero had sensed something odd while it hadn't bothered her at all. She then held her head up and placed her hand on Utena's, all with a determined look on her face. "Utena," she started, the determination melting into kindness, "if you ever have a problem, big or small, you can always come to me." Utena was silent, it wasn't that much of a surprise from usual but it was a silence birthed from shock. Once again she was feeling that intense déjà vu she had when with Reiko. She didn't understand exactly why what Sakura had said made her feel that way but it somewhat did.

"Utena-chan? Utena-chan? Are you ok?" Asked Sakura, noticing the girl's change in mood. That managed to bring Utena back down. "Oh uh yeah I'm fine and I appreciate your offer." Utena then wondered whether she should tell Sakura about all those feelings she had till now, but decided against it so she wouldn't have to worry so much over her. "Oh that's good. Now hurry up so we can get down to dinner before Kero-chan eats everything." Both of them took out Utena's clothes, all of them kindly donated by Ami and her senshi friends, and placed them in the drawers and hanged them in the closet. As soon as they were done they headed downstairs just at the exact time the doorbell rang.

"Don't worry I got it!" Said Sakura, rushing towards the door. When she opened it Toya and Yukito were revealed to be there. "Hello Yukito-san, onii-chan." She greeted them while allowing them both inside. "Hello Sakura-san." "Hey monster." "I told you I'm not a monster!" "Whatever you say monster." "Grr, onii-chan!" Utena stared at the siblings, somewhat feeling a faint pang of jealousy stir within her. She started to wonder if she even had siblings and then went on to wonder if she even had any relatives at all and if she did were they worried about her, wondering where she was, what had happened to her, and if she was ok.

After thoroughly teasing his sister, Toya finally took noticed of the pink haired girl near the stairs. "Oi Sakura, who's this?" Toya asked, also getting Yukito's attention towards the girl. "Onii-chan that's Utena, the girl I've been telling you about." "Oh you mean the one you offered to let stay with you?" "Mm hm." Yukito smiled and went up to Utena reaching his hand out. "Hello I'm Yukito Tsukishiro, nice to meet you Tenjou-san, Sakura's told me all about you." Utena tentatively shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too." "Hey Toya, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" "Alright." Toya went up to Utena after she had finished shaking hands with Yukito. "I'm Toya, nice to meet you." He said gruffly while also trying to shake hands with her. Utena shook his hand and nodded.

Kero then came out from the kitchen telling them all dinner was ready. They all went in and sat down to a plate of curry and rice. "Ah this curry is so good and it's all thanks to me preparing this." Kero claimed during mega spoonfuls of the food. "Kero-chan don't take all the credit, you just helped dad out with cooking." Scolded Sakura. "Eh but I did just as much work cooking this stuff as he did, right Professor?" "Indeed you did Kero." The rest of the dinner went along as any old meal in the Kinomoto residence would, with the siblings teasing and arguing with each other, Kero eating his meal all in one bite and asking for seconds, and Fujitaka and guests staring at the scene with heartfelt eyes. Utena stared at the sight, feeling a nice warmth within her, a warmth she believed she could've felt before with someone or some people. For the first time in what must've been a long time, she smiled.

Soon everyone finished their meals and moved onto dessert and finished that as well, Toya and Yukito left to return back home to what was formerly only Yukito's house. Later after helping Fujitaka and Sakura clean up, Utena had taken a shower and was now putting on her pjs preparing for bed. Once she'd buttoned the last button there was a knock at the door and she went to open it to reveal Sakura dressed for bed as well. "Oh hello Sakura." Started Utena. "Hi Utena," Sakura said, with hands that were behind her back now clasped together in the front, "I just wanted to tell you tomorrow we're going to go buy you a uniform for school." "School?" "Oh yeah. School starts in a couple of days and Luna told me she's estimated you to be around the same age as me so you'll be going to Tomaeda Middle, just like me." "Alright." Utena replied, closing the door only to be stopped by Sakura's foot.

"Also," trailed Sakura, looking at Utena then down to the floor and then back to her again, "I wanted to know if you had a great first day here, so did you?" Utena blinked. She thought about the question while also looking back on her day as well. She decided that apart from meeting Reiko, the day had been perfect. "My first day here was perfect, thank you for asking." She replied smiling. That answer had made Sakura happy.

"I'm happy to hear that. Well good night." "Goodnight." With that Utena closed the door and both girls headed towards their beds. Utena lied on her side, closing her eyes before flipping to the other side asleep. All seemed well for her right now, unfortunately though for Utena there were forces against her that were at work now.

* * *

><p>Reiko closed the door once she was inside the house. "I see you're back, how was your day?" Asked a masculine voice coming from an armchair. From the exact same chair came three small daggers, two that were promptly thrown at a picture in front of the chair that was torn beyond recognition by other daggers still imbedded in it and one that was thrown at Reiko only to be captured between two fingers. She smiled, only this smile however was different from the one she had earlier. Instead of being only a mere fake it was a true wicked one spread upon her features. "It was lovely," she said, walking over to sit on one of the chair's armrests, "I met her today." She threw her dagger at the picture as soon as she said that.<p>

"Oh really?" The man asked quizzically, turning his attention towards her. Reiko nodded. "He was right, her memories are completely gone although she did somewhat recognize me." The man remained silent, throwing another dagger at the picture. "Oh don't worry she's not onto me though, in fact I think she's become more stupider than she was at school." She quipped while also throwing a dagger.

A ringing noise sounded out. It came from the phone on the side table near the chair. Reiko got it while her partner got up. "Hello." She answered, in voice that was sweet yet toxic. "So have you found her?" Asked the voice on the line, the man plucking the daggers out of the wall and the picture. Reiko's smile widened. "I'll take that as a yes." She giggled, the man now throwing the picture away in a small rose crest patterned trash can, filled to brim with other pictures torn apart by daggers as well.

"And I'll take it she's no longer has her memories, like I said before?" "Mm hm." "Lovely to hear. And do you both have them with you?" The man grabbed a new photo from a box full of them, smoothed it down against the wall, then taped it. "Of course we do." She could practically hear the engine revving up. "Good. Remember, take her, along with anyone else who gets in our way, out. A stupid girl like her doesn't deserve the power to revolutionize the world." With that he hanged up and Reiko put the phone down, just in time for the man gave to give her a dagger. "I couldn't agree more." She said, taking the dagger and throwing it right in the middle of the person in the photograph's forehead; Utena Tenjou.


	2. Chapter 2

Anthy looked up at the building and then at the piece of paper in her hand. This was the place, although it was a bit bigger than she imagined it would be. In front of her stood a big white mansion behind a wrought iron gate that was surprisingly only a mere two stories tall and not all like the "small" size it was said to be in the advertisement. Anthy smiled, perhaps he future house mates didn't have a concept of size at all. "Well Chuchu," she said to the small monkey currently munching away on a breadstick, "let's go in." With that she walked up to the gates, suitcase in hand, and pressed the button to the intercom.

"Hello? Who is this?" Asked a voice coming from it, most likely belonging to a elderly male. "This is Anthy Himemiya, the one who answered the ad." There was silence. Suddenly the gates in front of her separated, allowing an entry way for her. "Please do come in." Said the voice. Anthy happily obliged, taking a step from the street into the white brick setting of the mansion. She walked around the fountain in the middle of it to get to the door and knocked. The doors opened to reveal an elderly old man with kind eyes in a three piece suit. A butler, she guessed.

"Welcome, Lady Himemiya," he greeted while also bowing down, "Lady Satsuki will be happy to see you've arrived." Anthy smiled. "I'm sure I'll be happy to see her too." The butler smiled then bowed down again. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Mitsuzo Soroi, the butler, and it is an honor to meet you." He then allowed Anthy to enter the mansion while insisting he take her bag which she obliged to. "So where is Kiryuin-san?"

Anthy's question was answered by a sliver of light, which then doubled, tripled, and multiplied into a large ray of light. Chuchu squealed at the brightness before putting on a pair of sunglasses while Anthy shielded her eyes, making out a silhouette in the middle of the light. The center of it soon dimmed to reveal a girl with black bobbed hair and thick eyebrows, looking down at her from the second floor in the middle of where the stairs split in the foyer. "WELCOME ANTHY HIMEMIYA," the girl greeted in a loud, booming voice, "I AM SATSUKI KIRYUIN AND I WELCOME YOU TO MY HUMBLE ABODE AND HOPE THAT ENJOY YOUR TIME HERE!" The light soon dimmed out all together and Anthy could see again.

"Nice to meet you too, Kiryuin-san." Anthy said, watching her descend down the stairs. "You know your home is a lot bigger than I expected." "My apologies, at the time I was comparing it to my former house." Anthy smiled. "It's no problem." She then looked around. "By the way your ad had told me there were approximately about nine occupants already living in here." Satsuki nodded. "Yes that includes myself and Soroi. Allow me to introduce you to the others." She turned to Soroi. "Soroi, please do take Himemiya-san's luggage to her room." "Yes my lady."

Both Anthy and Satsuki turned to the left while Soroi went upstairs with Anthy's luggage. Going down a powder blue hallway, Anthy stared at framed photographs that consisted of Satsuki with others, Satsuki alone, other people without Satsuki, and single portraits of them as well. They finally made it to what Anthy presumed was a dining room. In there were some of the people in the photographs such as the little boy in sunglasses who was currently swinging on the chandelier, the fat man in regular glasses with the woman that she presumed was his wife talking to each other while he was reading a newspaper and she was stirring something in a bowl, the girl with a red streak in her hair who was lying back in a chair with her feet on the table yawning, and the hoodie wearing pug that was currently licking his plate clean from whatever food he was served. All that was missing was-

"SATSUKIIII!" From out of nowhere flew down the bowl haired girl from the pictures, who currently looked like she was about to hit Anthy and Satsuki. Anthy naturally ducked only to realize the action was unnecessary when Satsuki caught her right in her hands while spinning her around and sat her down. "Hello Mankanshoku." Said Satsuki. "Eh? But Satsuki-chan I told you that since we're all living together you can just call me Mako." Whined the girl named as such. Satsuki sighed. "Alright Mako-" "Yay!" With that Mako gave Satsuki a squeeze while also cuddling her face against her. Anthy counted a total of eight people meaning that someone else was missing."Lady Satsuki." Said a new voice. Anthy turned towards where it came from only to be surprised to a see a girl with dark skin and lavender dreadlocks that was at least an inch past her elbow tall between her and Satsuki when she was absolutely sure there was no one there before. "I believe everyone, including myself, must introduce ourselves to Himemiya-san here." "I couldn't agree more." With that Satsuki took one step forward and a loud clack resounded around room from only her heel grabbing everyone's attention.

"ATTENTION FELLOW HOUSEMATES! OUR NEWEST MEMBER TO OUR HOUSEHOLD HAS ARRIVED! IT WOULD DO YOU ALL WELL TO HAVE THE DECENCY TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO HER!" As soon as she said that everyone lined up in a row with a military like flair and promptly introduced themselves. "I AM BARAZO MANKASHOKU, HUSBAND, FATHER,FORMER DOCTOR, AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" "I AM SUKUYO MANKANSHOKU, WIFE, MOTHER, HOMEMAKER, AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" "I AM MATARO MANKANSHOKU, SON, BROTHER, EX-DELINQUENT, AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" "GUTS!" "I AM MAKO MANKANSHOKU, DAUGHTER, SISTER, POSSIBLE FUTURE IN LAW, AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" "I AM RYUKO MATOI, SISTER TO SATSUKI, LOVER OF MAKO, AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" "I AM REI HOOMARU, ASSISTANT AND FELLOW HOUSEMATE!" They all bowed down to her in sync. "IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET AND SOON BE LIVING WITH YOU!" Anthy merely stared at them and then smiled. "I am Anthy Himemiya and its a pleasure to meet and soon be living with all of you as well."

"Very well, now that you've all introduced yourselves I can now attend to my business. Rei come along." Satsuki and Rei left the room, leaving only Anthy and the Mankanshokus and Ryuko alone. "So so lady, how did you get to live here?" Asked Mataro, nudging Anthy. "Now Mataro if she's going to tell us we can at least give her the opportunity to relax and eat. Come along now sweetie." Scolded Sukuyo while pushing Anthy to a seat at the table. Once she had sat her down she placed a mountain sized plate of croquettes right in front of Anthy whose eyes widened at the size. "Now go ahead and feel free to take a bite and we'll tell you all about ourselves Himemiya-san." "Yeah mom's croquettes are the best thing to enter anyone's mouth!" Anthy blinked and grabbed one of them, sniffing for good measure, took one bite and to her surprised ended up quite enjoying it. Chuchu saw this and took a croquette too and ended up being enthralled its flavor as well and soon enough started eating one entire croquette at a time.

The Mankanshokus talked about themselves very easily to her about many things such as how over half a year ago Satsuki invited them all to live with her, Barazo retiring from his profession since Satsuki insisted that she could provide for all of them and so that no one else would accidentally lose their life at his hands, Sukuyo's recipe for making croquettes, Mataro's get rich quick schemes, Mako talking about how wonderful her mother's cooking was, and Guts, uh, well him and Chuchu did seem to have an excellent conversation going on with eachother. The only person that didn't open up to her that easily was Ryuko. It wasn't out of hatred or malice though, it was just that the Mankanshoukus were very big talkers, so the most communication between them were mutual smiles relating to how exuberant the family was.

Luckily for them Soroi came down and told Anthy that he had finished putting her luggage away in her room and was going to lead her there until Ryuko insisted she take her there herself. She was met with kindhearted goodbyes and promises to reunite at dinner by the family who then promptly started to finish her leftover mountain of croquettes, which was now only half its size thanks to Chuchu. Now walking up the stairs she heard stifled giggles coming from Ryuko which then bursted into full blown laughter. "Ha ha, sorry about that, they just really enjoy new company." Explained Ryuko. "It's alright. In fact they're pretty nice people." Anthy reassured her, since the family reminded her of Utena's old energetic friend Wakaba.

Ryuko smiled but soon lost it when she took notice of Chuchu, who was now nibbling on a croquette he had saved for himself. "So uh is that like your magical animal mascot familiar or whatever?" "This is Chuchu." "Oh uh ok but is he like that for you?" Anthy turned towards Chuchu who also did same thing to her while still eating his croquette. She turned away and smiled. "I suppose so." She answered with a shrug. "So Matoi-san, shouldn't you tell me about yourself as well, or was that a Mankanshoku only deal?" "Oh yeah sure, just ask me anything you want to know about me." "Well I am curious as to how you and Satsuki have different surnames despite being sisters. Can you tell me about that?" That question made Ryuko stop walking and stand in place.

"Oh that well it's a long story." Anthy took notice of her change in demeanor. She only asked because the only instance of siblings having different surnames that she knew of was her and well her brother and since Ryuko was dating Mako and Satsuki didn't seem at all like the type of woman who would give up her name if she was going to get married it had peaked her curiosity. "It's ok, you don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable." "Alright. Well anyway here's your room."

After climbing up the stairs and going through the halls they finally made it to what would now be Anthy's room. Ryuko opened the door and led Anthy inside. She saw that her suitcase was next to it and that it hadn't been unpacked yet. "So do you need any help unpacking?" Asked Ryuko as Anthy stepped inside. "Oh no I'll be fine I can do it myself." "Oh well uh ok. Just know that me and Satsuki are down the halls on either side. Oh and I'll tell Soroi to come and get you for dinner." Ryuko then finally left Anthy all alone in her new residence.

Anthy looked around; the walls were painted a pale pink color, the floor was pearly white tiles, there was a closet and a door next to it that Anthy presumed lead to a bathroom, brown drawers, a dresser, a desk, and it had a canopy bed with transparent purple drapes and lavender sheets. She sighed to herself and started taking her things out of her suitcase. She placed her clothes in the dresser and closet and after that made a bed for Chuchu using the top drawer on the right side of her bed and some linens from her closet. Chuchu immediately put his new bed to good use and was snoring away underneath his sleeping mask. Anthy smiled at the sight. Now there was only one thing left for her to do; she sat down on her bed, reached into the inner pockets of her suitcase, grabbed a picture frame, and placed it on the drawer. In the frame was the photo of her and Utena side by side with Akio cropped out. Solemnly she touched the part with Utena with her fingertips.

"Don't worry Utena," she whispered to herself, "I'm almost close to you. Just a little while longer." She sadly took her fingers back and reached down into her suitcase to grab her sketch book and pencils. Since leaving her brother Anthy was free to do whatever she wanted and recently she was taking an interest in art. She looked at the clock on her drawer and decided she had enough time to herself till dinner. She got up and went directly towards the desk, sat down and opened up to a blank page in her sketch book and the ideas immediately flowed from her pencil.

* * *

><p>"Nanami, wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Said Rei, getting more and more frustrated and louder upon shaking the girl. "Nanami! Nanami! NANAMI!" That last one seemed to do it, what with Nanami screaming in surprise and rolling over from her side to her face. "Uh what is it?" Groggily asked Kyouko from her mat which was now moved away from Nanami's at at least 7 and half feet. "It's nothing Kyouko it's just that Nanami here was just having a "little" trouble waking up." "Hey!" "Shut up, besides today's the first day of school and you need to get ready about now." Nanami blinked in confusion but then saw that Rei was already dressed for school. "Eh?! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?!" Nanami demanded as she scrambled up from her mat hurrying over to her wardrobe and throwing anything out of it that wasn't her school uniform. "I did but you just said "oh 5 more minutes please."" "That's no excuse! You know very well I can't be late on my very first day at a new school!"<p>

Kyouko hoping to escape their argument put her pillow right on her head to negate any noise from them and tried to go back to sleep. "Ugh can you guys just shut up and leave already!?" Having almost found her uniform, Nanami had a sudden realization. "Hey wait a minute! How come you're not telling her to get up either!?" Nanami ordered pointing at Kyouko. "That's because Kyouko isn't going to school,"explained Rei while Kyouko rolled over to face her and lifted her pillow up to reveal her snide little grin, "she didn't fit T.A's regiment and I'm just terrified of what she would do at Juuban. No offense." "None taken." Nanami pouted nonetheless. "That's not fair at all!" "I don't care just get dressed or I'll leave without you."

Rei then left the girls' room and slid the door close while Nanami had finally found her T.A school uniform. She grabbed her shoes and would've left sooner if she hadn't seen her reflection in the mirror. What she saw was of course herself, but she also saw that she looked somewhat drab. She tugged at one of her blonde locks and sighed. After leaving Ohtori, she had ditched the braid holding back her hair as a way to let go of her old pitiable self, and while it did help in that she couldn't help but feel a bit plain. Normally she would of done something to her hair to at least make it look more appealing but at the moment she was a bit short on time.

Nanami immediately hurried out of her room all while putting her shoes on and grabbing her bag and met Rei at the shrine's entrance. Rei turned her eyes down to see her roommate huffing and out of air. "Took you long enough," Rei quipped, "did you manage to eat something before you left?" Rei's question was met by Nanami's stomach growling, causing said girl to blush upon doing so. Rei sighed and reached into her school bag to grab a sandwich in plastic bag that she made in case of this happening. "Here eat this." She said handing it to Nanami.

Nanami stared at it and cautiously took the bag, opened it, and stared at it's contents. "It's not poisoned by the way," assured Rei bluntly, "so you can eat it." Nanami blushed angrily at Rei for assuming so. "Of course I know that!" She snapped, taking the sandwich out of the bag and immediately eating it. The sandwich had ham and cheese, somewhat suitable as a breakfast. Both girls then ascended down the shrine's steps and then walked towards T.A, Nanami all the while angrily eating her sandwich.

They then arrived at the school just as immediately as Nanami had finished her sandwich. After spitefully finishing her sandwich, Nanami took notice of how big the school was along with it's students, faculty, and nuns. While doing so, Nanami ended up bumping into someone. "Nanami, watch where you're going!" scolded Rei. "Oh I'm sorry, please forgive me." apologized Nanami, bowing her head and closing her eyes. She opened up at least one of them to see who she bumped into and was shocked to see that it was a surprisingly beautiful nun, a nun with long eyelashes and eyes in the most loveliest shade of gray hidden behind round spectacles, full lips, with a mole beneath them on the left, and a body that appeared so -

Nanami stopped her thoughts and looked away from the nun, now profusely blushing. Normally she wouldn't be thinking about such things of a woman, a nun especially, but since leaving Ohtori she found herself thinking thoughts like these whenever she would come around a woman and would always have no clue on how to deal with them. She felt Rei place a hand on her shoulder. "Sister please forgive my friend here, you see its her first day at school here and she just has her head in the clouds a lot." She heard Rei explain, a bit bitter about the head in the clouds part. Nanami turned to the nun, although not too much so she wouldn't return to her thoughts from before and was surprised to see the nun smile.

"What a coincidence, I'm new here as well." the nun said. "As for your friend I suppose I'll forgive her. Now if you two will excuse me I have business with the Lord to attend to." With that she went off away from the girls. "She was really nice." Commented Nanami, watching her walk away." "Which is really surprising considering she's a school nun." Soon the school's bells rang, alerting both girls to their duties. "Oh I better get to class now -" "Wait what about me!?" "There are boards with a list of students' names and class rooms that they're assigned to inside, just use that!"

Nanami took Rei's advice and headed inside. This was all so new to her; back at Ohtori they would just send letters to them detailing what classes they were attending along with what building they were in. Soon Nanami was deep inside the school and sure enough there were boards with names on them and about hundreds of girls huddled around them. "Excuse me? Ah pardon me." Said Nanami trying to make her way through the ladies. When that didn't work, she ended up on the floor crawling her way through a sea of legs to be able to get to a board. Soon enough she finally got near the boards and got up to search for her name and class. Luckily for Nanami, the first board in front of her had her name along with what classroom she was supposed to go to. She then crawled her way out of the horde and headed straight to her class.

Once there, she saw that the teacher hadn't arrived yet and so sat down one row away from the front. She looked around. The girls in class were conversing with each other over little things such as what they did over the summer, love interests, clothes, and so on. Nanami felt a pang of loneliness watching over all of it; she herself had never exactly known true friendship what with Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko only kissing up to her to get close to her brother, Tsuwabuki feeling more like a little brother to her, Arisugawa and Miki being only fellow student council members, and Tenjou and Himemiya - well they didn't exactly fit into that category.

She then heard a clapping noise and saw that everyone stopped talking and turned their heads to the front, she did the same likewise. In front of her was a stylishly dressed woman with long white hair, gray eyes, red glasses perched upon her head, and make up done in a fashion that she was surprised a Catholic school would allow. She guessed that this was their teacher while the woman went up to the chalkboard. "Attention class," she spoke while still receiving their attention, "I will be your new history teacher for the year so allow me to introduce myself." She grabbed a stick of chalk and started to write on the board. "I am Ms. Romee," she started, while also writing that down in English, "but I suppose you can all call me Romee-sensei or just sensei." writing her name in katakana as well.

"Um Romee-sensei," said a student in the back, hand raised, " what happened to Suzuki-sensei." Romee put the chalk down when she asked that. "Ah her, well you see your old teacher is on maternity leave and until she returns I'll be teaching all of you. Now grab your text books and turn to the page on the board."

* * *

><p>The rest of the school day just flew by for Nanami. One thing that was remotely interesting about it though was when she had forgotten her lunch only to have been saved by Rei who had made her one just in case and after she had done so ended up getting swarmed by her fan girls. She fondly remembered how they all asked how she had gotten their idol to make her a lunch and her responding with that they lived together causing them to squeal in delight. They soon asked her every little detail about Rei such as her favorite meal, favorite color, hobbies, things she enjoyed in her free time, what position she usually slept in and so on. And while she could only vaguely answer a few questions they all enjoyed whatever answers they could get. Enjoying being the center of attention once again, Nanami made mental note to gather a couple of tidbits on Rei to answer them tomorrow. At the moment though she and Rei were on their way to Fruits Parlor Crown, a cafe where Rei and her friends usually hanged out.<p>

"Rei-chan, over here!" Was the first thing Nanami heard as soon as they entered the place. Once inside, she saw that it had came from a girl that had her hair in two buns that was standing up at a booth with five other girls waving at them. "Hey guys, how was your day?" Rei asked while walking up to them. "By the way Luna told you about Nanami right?" Nanami timidly waved at them. "Hello." The girls in turn waved back.

"Allow me to introduce my friends, this is Makoto Kino," Rei said, referring to the girl with brown hair done in a pony tail that was sitting next to a girl with blonde hair in twin tail ringlets, "Ami Mizuno," a girl with short blue hair, "Usagi Tsukino," bun haired girl, "and Minako Aino." When Nanami turned to face the last girl, it felt like time itself had stopped. Her eyes widened at the sight of the very sight of her; her hair was so shiny it was as if gold had been woven into those tresses and she was oh so thankful that most of it was held back by that pretty red bow that she wore so that she could be able to see how gorgeous her face was and how her eyes were so crystalline and blue.

It hadn't occurred to Nanami how long she had been staring until she felt Rei shaking her shoulder. "Oi Nanami, are you gonna sit down?" After being shaken out of her stupor she blushed out of embarrassment and sat down at the booth - right next to Minako, which made her blush even more. Rei and her friends were chatting all the while unaware of Nanami stealing looks of Minako which was quite surprising considering how much pinker her face became every time she took a peek of her. Minako was all she was focused on the entire time she was at the cafe that she was even unaware that the drill haired girl was Mami Tomoe from the incident. However she was taken out of her daze when asked a question from Usagi.

"Huh?" "I said do you know which senshi each of use are?" Nanami blinked until understanding what she meant. "Oh right, well Rei-san is Mars." She answered, Rei nodding in approval. "And uh Aino-san-" "You can call me Minako." "Oh uh Minako-san is uh, uh," she kept stuttering, trying to figure out which sailor senshi Minako possibly was. She turned towards her, once again entranced by her beauty, and the answer was simple enough. "Sailor Venus." was her answer, she knew it just had to be considering how beautiful she was. "That's right!" Minako replied, causing an absolute wave of relief upon Nanami who's only problem now was correctly guessing the other girls' identities.

She guessed Tsukino was Pluto, Mizuno and Kino were Neptune and Uranus, and that the drill haired girl was Sailor Moon. She was corrected by them to learn that Tsukino herself was actually Sailor Moon, Mizuno was Mercury, Kino Jupiter, and Drills herself wasn't a senshi at all but a Puella Magi, frightening Nanami a bit inside. All of them continued talking about random subjects such as Tomoe's first day at Juuban High, the well-being of some girl Mizuno knew, and Tsukino rambling on about how her boyfriend had gotten her this gorgeous new bracelet while Nanami paid no heed to any of it, only content to stare at Minako.

Soon enough they all had to go home and work on homework from school and study. They left the cafe and all headed their separate ways. Walking alongside Rei to head home to shrine, Nanami had asked "Hey Rei-san, is Minako-san seeing anyone?" Rei turned to her with raised eyebrows. "No, not really," answer, somehow making Nanami sigh with relief, "why do you want to know?" "Oh no reason."


	3. Chapter 3

She couldn't believe the situation she was in; her the Devil, Satan, Lucifer herself, the new goddess of the universe captured by mere mortals. She banged her fists against the deep red energy sphere once more. "Let me out!" she yelled. "I am the creator of this world! Let me out or else I will -" **CLONK! **Homucifer soon lost that train of thought when Pluto bonked her on the head with her Garnet Rod. "Ah, put a sock in it." the time guardian spat, turning to her cohorts. "Pluto shouldn't you be more gentle with her?" asked Neptune, eyeing up the the asteroid sized welt the rod left on the conked out demon's head. "Gentle!? Are you kidding me!? Do you have any idea how much this little runt here has dicked around with time!? She deserves a hit with the rod!" "We know," replied Uranus, arms crossed and an amused look upon her face, "you said that when we first captured her and you hit her on the head the very first time."

Unfortunately for Homura, both before and after her ascension, she wasn't aware that there were magical girls besides Puella and that had led her to defeat by them as well. Now she was trapped in the Corridor of Space-Time, imprisoned in Pluto's Garnet Ball, and being watched over by the outer sailor senshi. She had attempted to use her powers to destroy the universe once she had awakened from being hit by Pluto's rod the first time, only to learn that they didn't work since she was currently outside the universe. Knowing that she was unconscious at the moment, the three outers left the Corridor through the Door thanks to Pluto and returned to their living room detransformed and to find little Hotaru asleep on the couch.

"Aw, she was waiting up for us," Michiru cooed, picking the small child up in her arms while Haruka and Setsuna awwed as well. After putting Hotaru to bed the three of them gathered in the living room to talk about their new "charge". "So are we just gonna keep watching her forever?" Haruka asked. Setsuna sighed. "I don't think so exactly. If we want we could just roll the Garnet Ball deep in there and she could be lost forever." "Oh now Setsuna that's too cruel, even for your standards." chided Michiru. "What it's a good idea, sides Madokami could reawaken any time now." Although not absolutely certain Setsuna was somehow right. Without Homucifer keeping her down the Puellas' Goddess could reawaken and take control once again, however there were a couple of uncertainties. What if Madokami returned the Puella's to her system of them disappearing from their grief to her valhalla in which they would still suffer, or what if Madokami would take non Puella magical girls into her system, or perhaps she was absolutely angry at Homucifer for usurping her and would tear apart galaxies to find her and when she did would create a great war between the two both destroying them and the universe.

Pondering those uncertainties, all three of them sighed in unison. Only time may tell what will happen.

* * *

><p><em>Clanking.<em>

_The sound of metal against metal hitting each other._

_The smell of perspiration, desperation, and temptation filled the air._

_There was a sweet scent in there as well, something flowery that somehow brought tears to her eyes._

_Everything was a blur. A green blur, a blue blur, an orange blur, a yellow blur, a red blur and the green blur again. One blur that was constant was a purple blur constantly watching the blurs fight._

_There was something soothing about that blur in particular, knowing that it was there._

_Soon the clanking became more frantic, feverish even, radically hysterical as if fighting for their lives. Faced with an all white blur the clanking was going faster and faster until it stopped._

_It stopped because of pain, pain from behind her, pain that came from the soothing blur who picked up something and gave it to the white blur._

_She heard music, music from a carousel. _

_She saw her favorite blur go towards the evil white one and tried to stop it but to no avail._

_The metallic stench was strong._

_Purple was suffering._

_She felt pain repeatedly._

_There was another white blur trying to soothe her but she wouldn't allow it._

_She pushed the other offensive white blur away and made her way to something._

_She said words she couldn't understand, kept saying them over and over._

_Until there was a light splash against her fingers._

_A light splashed that opened up something for her._

_Something that revealed purple._

_She was begging purple to do something._

_She held her hand out to the blur and -_

_It fell._

_It fell away to a better place, a place far far away from her and those awful white blurs._

_She was tired and in pain. _

_She'd believe it would all be over._

_Believed until she turned over and -_

* * *

><p>"OI UTENA WAKE UP!" Kero yelled at the top of his lungs, but to no avail did he wake up the pink haired girl. "That's it! You're asking for it!" With that he flew up half a foot from the ceiling and immediately yelled and charged down fist first towards her solar plexus, forcing the girl to wake up in the most unpleasant of ways. Picking the small creature up by the scruff of his neck, Utena lifted him towards her face. "Kero what was that for?" Utena groggily demanded. "Hey I was only trying to wake you up. For crying out loud this is actually the first time Sakura's ever willingly gotten up before someone!" "And just why would I need be up so early?" "Because there's school today." Utena blinked at that. "School?" The realization soon hit her afterwards. "Oh no!"<p>

Scrambling out of bed, Utena accidentally flung Kero towards a wall in which he slid down against until landing on her desk. "Hey what was that for?!" He demanded, only to have Utena's pajama shirt thrown upon him. "Oh sorry about that Kero," Utena apologized, while frantically searching for her school uniform in the wardrobe, "I'm just really in a hurry." "That's still no excuse to throw me around like a rag doll!" Kero retorted once he made his way out of the pajama shirt only to have Utena indirectly fling her pajama pants at him. "Sorry." "Hey you did it again!"

Kero's anger however was short lived, for when he lifted up a pajama leg to free himself, he was left awestruck by Utena's appearance in her uniform. Utena was smoothing down her tie, a disoriented expression upon her face until she turned towards Kero. "Wow you really look good in that" the plush toy look alike commented. "Really? I think I look kinda weird." Utena admitted, turning away. "Weird, huh? What about it makes you look weird?" "Oh I don't know." "Ah come on you can tell me." "Well ok. You see I kinda feel like this looks wrong." "Wrong? Like how wrong we talkin here?" "Well wrong in a way that you usually don't do, like say you usually bring a case full of pencils to school, right?" "Right." "So you usually do that all the time until one day you bring case full of pens instead. It's not something you usually do and didn't make a choice to do it but it happened and you feel weird about it. That sounds dumb doesn't it?" "No, no not all. If that's the way you feel about it then it's ok to express how you feel about it." "Really?" "Yeah!"

Utena turned around to face the mirror. Most people would say she looked pretty good in her uniform, but to Utena herself she looked kinda weird. It soon hit Utena that she had to head downstairs immediately in order to have breakfast before leaving to school. With Kero right behind her, she hurried out of her room down the stairs into the dining room to see Sakura and Fujitaka already eating with two plates set for the both of them. "Oh Utena you're awake." Sakura said, while helping herself to another bite of steamed rice. "Yeah sorry about that," Utena apologized, sitting down and helping herself to some miso soup, "I sorta forgot we had school today. Luckily for me Kero came and woke me up." "It's no problem." Kero responded, putting an entire piece of tamagoyaki into his mouth after saying so. Fujitaka smiled at the sight.

"Sakura, you're gonna help Tenjou-san around in school right?" Fujitaka asked, turning towards his daughter who was mid tamagoyaki. "Of course." Sakura replied, excitedly nodding her head. Utena stopped mid bite of her steamed rice to watch Sakura and her father smiling at each other, once again feeling a vague pang of envy. After a couple of minutes of eating in peace, Sakura gasped in horror as she caught glimpse of her watch to see that she and Utena would almost be late to school. She quickly downed her entire breakfast and ran from the table while grabbing Utena's arm just as she was about to have another piece of tamagoyaki and taking Utena along with her.

Fortunately for Utena, Sakura stopped and kneeled down at the step before the door to put on their roller skates. About two days ago Sakura had taught Utena how to roller skate, as it was her main way of getting to school. It was difficult at first, what with Utena constantly falling down and occasionally bringing Sakura down with her, but soon enough she managed to get it down in time for school. After strapping on their elbow and knee pads they were about to head outside until they were stopped by Fujitaka, who gave them their lunches they had momentarily forgotten about. Once receiving their lunches, both girls headed outside and skated towards school. Utena wobbled occasionally, but luckily was caught by Sakura each and every time.

After some twists and turns, they finally made it to Tomaeda Middle School. While skating their way towards the building, Sakura returned hellos and waves with anyone that did the same to her. Finally they made it inside the school. Once in they removed their roller skates and stored them away in their lockers, all while toeing on their uwabaki. After accomplishing that Sakura led Utena to their classroom for according to the letter with Utena's classes on it she was in all the classes Sakura had.

"I really can't wait for you to meet my friends Utena-chan," Sakura said, still walking next to her, "I think you all would really get along - oof!" Once more Sakura had bumped into someone, at least this time both parties weren't knocked down. "Ah I'm sorry," apologized Sakura, bowing down. Once she looked up though she was absolutely surprised to see who it was.

"Hanato!" Indeed it was Reiko Hanato, the woman the girls had met at Penguin Park days ago. She stared at the girls, still smiling the same weird smile she had before. "Why hello again girls," she greeted, "what a coincidence to run into the two of you here." Once again Utena was overcome with a rush of deja vu and uneasiness. She didn't understand why Reiko made her feel this way. "Hanato-san what are you doing here?" Sakura questioned. Reiko's smile widened. "Do you remember how I told you that my fiance and I moved here because of a job offer?" She asked, Sakura nodding in return. "Well you're looking at it. I got a job at Tomaeda Middle School as a guidance counselor."

"Really? That sounds amazing." exclaimed Sakura. "Mm hmm. You know right now I was going to go get some water for a flower my fiance gave me, would you mind taking me to the nearest drinking fountain." Reiko requested, holding up a red vase with a thin pink line just below the lip that somehow wasn't destroyed in the collision with Sakura.

"Oh well I guess we -" "Actually me and Sakura really need to get to class right now." butted in Utena. "After all we wouldn't want to be a late on the first day of school, besides I think a saw a fountain just down the hall." Utena babbled all while steering Sakura away from Reiko. "Oh well that's understandable." Reiko said while still in hearing range to them. Once she was out of their sight though, her smile melted away into a grimace.

Once more Utena had gotten in her way, she thought while she walked down the hall and found that there absolutely was a drinking fountain. As the water was flowing into the vase, Reiko thought even more about Utena, such as how annoying and stupid she was, what complete idiot she has become now, and mostly about how she had ruined her life, completely unaware that the water was overflowing the vase. Once she had though she immediately took her hand off the panel button and went straight towards her new office. Her thoughts were still on Utena, her fiance's exact words about how she and his sister made him to slowly poison her and her father still ringing in her head.

_"I swear I never wanted to harm you, they just made me do it."_

Once inside her office, she placed her vase on the desk. Her grimace soon turned into a vicious smile. _Soon I'll get you back Tenjou-san_, she thought as she placed a single black rose in the vase.

* * *

><p>Utena was still guiding Sakura down the hall, trying to get as far away from Reiko as possible. Sakura remained silent from surprise the whole time until she finally decided to say something. "Um Utena," she started, "where are we going?" "To class of course." "Then how come we just passed it seven classes ago?"<p>

That made Utena stop in her tracks and caused her to blush out of embarrassment and look down at the floor. In her rush to flee from Reiko she forgotten that it was Sakura who knew where the class, was not her. Sakura gazed at her friend with worry. "Utena, do you not like Hanato-san?" Utena looked up to stare at Sakura. "I don't think so." "Then how come you got us away from her so fast?"

Utena turned away from Sakura from awkwardness. "Its ok Utena, you can tell me." assured Sakura. Utena turned to her again, feeling both touched and a vague pang of guilt. "Well she kinda makes me feel weird." "Weird? How?" "Well I can't help but get the feeling I've seen her somewhere but she said that she never met me before and yet I still feel so uncomfortable around her." "So you don't want to be around her?" "Well that kinda feels like the best option I have, so yeah."

Sakura smiled, placing her hand on Utena's shoulder. "If that's how you feel about it, then the next time we see Hanato-san you can feel free to go somewhere else while we're together and I'll go to you once we're done." Utena stared at her wide eyed but soon enough she smiled. "Thanks for letting me talk about this with you." "It's no problem. Now do you think we could head to class now, I think the bell might ring anytime soon." "Sure." With that both girls turned around and headed to their classroom.

* * *

><p>"So you're new to Tomaeda?" "What's it like living with Sakura?" "Is that your natural hair color?" After entering the classroom Utena was promptly introduced to each and every one of Sakura's friends and at the moment was being bombarded with questions by Naoko, Rika, and Chiharu, not that it wasn't bad or smothering in the least. "Hey, hey one question at time, Yanagisawa-san what were you saying before?" Naoko beamed. "Well I want to know how you got to live with Sakura?" Utena smiled, remembering the story she and Sakura had come up with in case people asked. "Well my aunt's an old friend of Sakura's dad and had to go on a business trip for a long time and couldn't take me, so Professor Kinomoto offered to let me live with him and Sakura."<p>

While the three girls were talking to Utena, Sakura, Tomoyo, and Li were near the door watching over the entire thing. "Tenjou-san really seems to be popular amongst girls." Tomoyo commented, watching Utena continuing to answer their questions. "I guess so," Syaoran awkwardly agreed. Sakura only giggled at the idea of Utena being great with the ladies. Immediately after that exchange between the three of them, Terada came in, causing everyone to go and sit down at their desks.

"Good morning class," he greeted, "today is the day we begin a new semester and I am sure that you are all aware that we have a new student here. Tenjou-san please stand and introduce yourself." Utena nodded and did as she was told. "Hello everyone, I am Utena Tenjou and I hope that we will all get along this year." Once she was done, she sat back down and class began. During their lesson, Utena noticed that Rika, who sat one desk down across from her, was blushing and looking up at something. She wasn't sure who are what it was she was staring at that would cause her to do so, but she decided not to prod anyway. After all it wasn't her business.

* * *

><p>It was lunch time, meaning that everyone had gone outside to eat and chat with friends. Well almost everyone. Rika was still walking in the hallways, holding a flat object to her head shyly. She soon stopped when she made her destination. She was going to knock on the doorway but she pulled her hand away. She was going to try again but her knuckles had barely even touched the woodwork for the door immediately slid open, revealing Reiko inside. "May I help you?" she asked calmly.<p>

Rika was surprised but she nodded yes anyway. She was led inside and sat in a chair in front of Reiko's desk. Absentmindedly she noted the picture of a butterfly on it. "So how can I help you?" Asked Reiko, sitting her chin on her hands. Rika looked away from her, the only thing she bothered to stare at being the object she held close to her chest; a framed picture of her graduating sixth grade class, where Terada having place on of his hands on her shoulder. She took a deep breath, still not looking at Reiko."

"Well there's this person," started Rika, unaware of Reiko's glasses glinting from the light entering the room, "and I really like them. They however don't know how I feel. It's not that I'm too shy to confess or anything, it's just that well there are circumstances that are preventing me from doing so. If it wasn't for that I would happily tell them how I feel."

"Deeper. Go deeper." urged Reiko,her glasses now shining brighter than before. Rika was trembling now, the picture now quivering in her hands . "Yes, if it wasn't for circumstances, for this world, I would happily tell them how I feel. If I could tell him how I feel, then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't see me like another child, maybe he could finally see and know how I feel." A tear drop landed on the picture.

"IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" shrieked Rika, slamming the picture frame on the ground, causing glass to scatter everywhere. She was hiding herself in her own arms now, tears streaming down the sides of her face. "It's just not fair! Everyone else gets to be open with their love, why can't I?! It's just not fair! It's just not fair! It's just not fair!" Rika was full on weeping now, burying her face in her hands to somehow hide the tears. While doing so, Reiko got up from her own chair and went around her desk to place her hand on the sobbing girl's shoulder. "I understand," she said, her fingers digging themselves into Rika's shoulder," I suppose you have no choice but to revolutionize the world. The way before you has been prepared."

Rika looked up from her hands, staring in confusion at Reiko. "What?" Unfortunately her question was going to be answered really soon, because immediately Reiko wrapped her arm around her throat. Rika was struggling, trying to breathe and trying to pull Reiko's arm away. Reiko grinning wickedly now, reaching for the black rose in the vase on her desk. "Now, now, don't struggle," she said in a fashion similar to a mother scolding her child, "afterall, this is your new heart… and your new life."

After finally grabbing her rose, she held it high in the air and brought it down.

Right. Through. Rika's. Chest.

The scream she gave out was silent. She also stopped struggling too. Reiko smiled, grabbing the girl's hand and placing a single Black Rose Signet on one of her fingers.

* * *

><p>School was nearly over. Terada was at his desk, shuffling papers. He then heard a knock and turned in his chair to see Rika. "Ah Sasaki-san, good to see you." he commented. Rika nodded in return. He noticed that there was something off about her but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Perhaps it had something to do with that black rose on her chest.<p>

Rika started to walk towards him. "Are you alright Sasaki-san?" Terada asked, concerned about his student's behavior. "No sensei I'm fine." She answered. "And it's all thanks to this rose." Terada was confused now. "What do you mean?" Rika only smiled.

Even more confused now, Terada tried to get up from his chair and speak to Rika, only to be stopped by a sharp pain his chest. He cringed forward, hands on his chest over when he felt the pain most and soon enough arched backwards. The pain felt more intense now, as if something was being pulled right out of him. The pain soon proved too much to bear and he ended up passing out in his chair.

Rika smiled. Now holding Terada's soul sword to her chest she could now do the purpose that was given to her when she was given her rose.

* * *

><p>School had finally ended. Sakura and Utena were now nearly at their lockers. "So how was school for you today?" Sakura asked while stretching her arms behind her. "Oh it was ok," answered Utena, "although I hadn't seen Sasaki-san after lunch. What happened to her?" "Oh yeah she went missing. I have no clue what happened to her."<p>

The girls were now at their lockers. By now mostly everyone had left - or so they believed. Opening up her locker, Utena found a white paper with simplified light lavender rose design on it. She brought it close to her face to inspect the message on it just in time for Sakura to turn around and see it. "Wow, it's only your first day and you already got a love letter?" said Sakura. "I don't exactly think it's a love letter," replied Utena, handing it over to Sakura, "look what it says." Sakura took it and read what it said; "To the one with the power to revolutionize the world: "I will be waiting in Class 1-A after school."

"See what I meant," said Utena while Sakura was puzzling the message. ""The one with the power to revolutionize the world?"" Sakura said out loud. "What does that mean?" As if to answer their question, a voice sounded out along with some eerily cheerful music. "Extra, extra, extra," it said, startling Sakura and Utena who started looking around the room to see where it came from, unaware of the silhouette of a girl on a wall to the left of them. "Ah this is so bad, just awful, just the worst! How come? Oh, I lost my iconic headband that I wear all the time. Oh, how so? In a fight to the death, winner take all and loser lose all. Well can't you get a new one? No I cannot. And just why?"

"Because it's a part of her identity." answered Utena, surprising both herself and Sakura. The music faded soon faded away. Utena turned around towards the way to classes, only to have her arm grabbed by Sakura. "You're not actually going to go are you?" Sakura asked, concerned for her friend and still weirded out by the girl she couldn't see. "Well I have to don't I?" "Not really." "Yes she does." Piped in the voice, making Utena and Sakura search around the room again. "Well you heard the, uh, thing, I have to go." explained Utena. "Well," started Sakura, "at least let me go with you, just to make me feel better." "Ok."

The two of them headed towards 1-A. Once there, Utena slid open the door to find that Rika was inside, staring out the window. "Oh Sasaki-san, you're here," said Utena, her and Sakura walking into the room together, "a while ago we were just wondering what happened to you after lunch." Rika remained silent, her back still to them. Both Sakura and Utena were surprised by Rika's change in demeanor. "Rika-chan are you ok?" Sakura asked, concerned for the girl. Rika was still quiet.

Both of them were really concerned now. "Uh hey Sasaki-san," asked Utena walking up behind her, about to place her hand on her shoulder, "if you're not feeling well, me and Sakura could take you-"

Utena couldn't even finish that sentence, for Rika had turned around and sliced Utena's right cheek with a European styled rapier. Utena stumbled backwards, cupping her cheek in both hands while Sakura was shocked beyond belief. Rika looked at them - no Utena - and cruelly smiled. "I shall win this duel and bring death to the one with the power to revolutionize the world. I swear by this black rose." Rika said, touching the flower that the girls had just noticed on her chest along with the ring on her finger. Utena stared at the rose and upon doing so received a raging headache. She clutched her head in pain while visions of black swiping at her flew through her mind. "Rika-chan, what's wrong with you?! Why are you acting like this?!" Sakura demanded, shocked by her friend's change in both action and attitude.

Rika only giggled in return. "Because if I kill her then I can be with the one I love." She explained matter of factly. "Be with the one you love? What are you talking about?" "It's simple, if I kill her I can take her power and use it to change this stupid world and make be that I can be with him without any circumstances stopping me." Rika then looked to Utena. "And now," she said, raising her sword, "PREPARE TO DIE!"

Rika lunged at Utena sword first, only for her to dodge and end up slicing her left arm right through her uniform. Utena staggered backwards, holding her new wound in her hand. Rika's smile widened more and charged towards Utena, only for her to get out of the way again and end up stabbing the screen door. "We need to get out of here!" Utena yelled, grabbing Sakura's hand and getting the two of them out of the room into the hall while Rika was removing her sword.

They ran for the lives down the hall, knowing if they stopped harm would come to Utena. "Why is she acting like this?" Utena asked between huffs of air. "I don't know." replied it hit her. "But the last time something like this happened it was because Rika-chan was under the control of Sword." "So she's under someone's control?" "Apparently yes"

The girls kept running until they made a turn and went inside the first room that was open and slid the door shut. They huffed breaths of air as they laid against the wall while also noticing that they were in the kendo club room. The two turned to eachother with one last pant. "So do you think she's gone?" asked Sakura, only to be cruelly answered by a blade that stabbed its way through the screen. The blade then went down and both girls moved away from it. The slice it had made widened and tore as Rika allowed herself in the room, still smiling cruelly. "It's no use,"she started, walking in one step at a time, "you could hide and run as much as you want but I will still find and kill you. Just accept your fate and let my sword taste your blood!"

Rika dived right in, the tip of her sword nearing half centimeter near Utena's nose, only for her arm to be grabbed by Sakura. "Rika-chan please," begged Sakura while Rika was struggling to get her sword hand out of her grip, "don't hurt Utena-chan! This isn't you! Please just stop it!" "Shut up!" Rika snarled, punching Sakura in the face, making her fall over. Utena gasped at the sight; Sakura's nose was bruised and bleeding from both the cut on it and her nostrils. Utena was angered now.

She went and grabbed one of the bamboo swords and charged towards Rika in a way that felt so nostalgic. Rika saw this and blocked her hit with her own sword. They continuously exchanged swords with each other, Rika getting more cuts on Utena. Sakura held her nose, the thing brought tears to her eyes. Here she was just sitting around while her one of her friends was under some sort of mind control and the other fighting for her sake and she couldn't do anything about it. If only she had the cards on her.

Utena and Rika were still fighting, Utena covered in cuts while Rika didn't have a scratch on her. During their dueling Utena couldn't keep her eyes off of Rika's rose, remembering how she had swore on it earlier. An idea immediately came to Utena's mind. She raised her sword and with just one swipe, her sword sliced the rose right off of Rika.

Upon doing so Rika stumbled backwards and clutched her head while screaming in anguish and immediately passed out. Still panting herself, Utena walked over to her and one else down to check if she was all right. "Sasaki-san -" Instantly Utena was overcome with another headache, even more violent than before. She clutched her head in pain while Sakura stood up frightened by the scene herself. Soon the headache was too intense to bear that Utena ended up blacking out as well.

Alarmed by yet another friend of hers fainting again, Sakura ran over to both Rika and Utena and tried to wake them up. "Rika-chan! Utena-chan! Open your eyes! Please wake up!" Sakura begged, tears streaming down her face but to no avail did it work. She then sniffed back a sob and reached into her pocket and dialed a number. "Tomoyo-chan, I need your help…"

* * *

><p>Reiko was furious. The sound of the wood chipper was tuned out from her anger. "Another failure again," noted the man, helping the chopper devour even more of the body bag, "you know you shouldn't be so angry, we still have ninety two roses left."<p>

Reiko glared at him and immediately slapped him. "I am fully aware of that," she replied through gritted teeth, "I just can't believe we had failure on the first try." The man rubbed his cheek, still stinging from when she slapped him. "He won't even be angry about it." "Oh shut the hell up, of course he will be -" Reiko was cut off by the sound of the phone ringing. She walked over to it and before answering it inhaled a breath of air. "Hello," she said bluntly. "I suppose it didn't go well did it?" Reiko gritted her teeth. "I'll take that as a yes." "It wasn't my fault, he probably did something to the rose -" "I did not!" "Now, now you two there's no need to squabble like children, after all we still have ninety two roses left."

Reiko remained silent. "Good. Remember take her, along with anyone else who gets in our way, out." "A stupid girl like her doesn't deserve the power to revolutionize the world." He hanged up and Reiko put the phone down. Arms crossed, she still refused to look at the other man. "See I told you, nothing to worry about." the man reassured. Once the body was completely destroyed he had untied his pink hair from the pony tail he put it in. "If you want I could do the next one." Reiko turned around and glared at him. "No," she replied, "this is something I have to do myself." With that she walked over to the tank, caressing the black rose it held inside.


End file.
